A new Sky Sports study has found that Arsenal are the second most watched Premier League team in the country, behind Manchester United. Arsenal won in 33 of the 118 postcode areas, and unsurprisingly they have a significant stronghold in London and the South East.
Arsenal dominated the capital, keeping the champions out
The study looked at the viewing habits of 500,000 Sky Sports watchers in 118 areas of the country and aimed to find out which team are watched most often. Manchester United won 49 of the areas, which are spread across most of the country. The support of the Premier League champions Chelsea is less diverse, with all but two of Chelsea's 21 areas coming in Scotland. Of the two that came south of the border none were in London.
Arsenal convincingly topped findings in London, dominating the whole city. The survey only showed games shown on Sky Sports, but the addition of other games, such as FA Cup games that were either shown on BT Sport or the BBC, would give Arsenal an even more convincing victory in the capital.
Arsenal did fail to win over viewers outside the South East though, as they won only a few areas outside the capital and the Home Counties. Manchester United and Liverpool dominated the rest of England and Wales, with Newcastle, West Brom, Swansea and Chelsea the bot other team represented. Leicester were the only other team to win an area, surprisingly taking the Outer Hebrides.
According to the report, Arsenal's 33 strongholds are: Brighton, Canterbury, Chelmsford, Coventry, Croydon, Dartford, east London, Enfield, Exeter, Guildford, Harrow, Hemel Hempstead, Ipswich, Luton, Milton Keynes, north-west London, north London, Norwich, Plymouth, Rochester, Romford, Salisbury, Slough, south-east London, south-west London, Southall, Southend-on-Sea, St Albans, Stevenage, Sutton, Tonbridge, Watford and west London.
